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CHAP. XIV.

PORTUGAL.-Progress of the Queen's arms-Leyria surrenders-The Miguelites are driven from the northern provinces-Spanish army enters Portugal-Don Miguel abandons Santarem-Capitulates at Evora-Leaves the Peninsula-Decrees of Don Pedro declaring Lisbon and Oporto free ports-equalizing the duties on imports—abolishing the Oporto Wine Company, and all monasteries and religious houses -Establishing a Metallic currency-Meeting of the Cortes-Speech from the Throne-Don Pedro appointed Regent-His resignation -His death-Ministry of the Duke of Palmella-Marriage of the Queen-Exclusion of Don Miguel and his descendants from the Throne Sale of the national domains Change in the currency-The budget of the year-Close of the session of the Cortes-Ungrateful treatment of the foreign auxiliaries.

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T the close of 1833, the cause of Don Miguel in Portugal, had ceased to wear a promising appearance. The government of the Queen was in possession of the capital, as well as of Oporto: it had an efficient army, now accustomed to service, and commanded by able officers; it had the means of procuring money; it was recognized by foreign states, and supported by their alliances. The authority of Don Miguel, indeed, was obeyed over a large extent of country; many important fortresses were still in his possession, and he was at the head of a respectable army; but his navy, which secured to him reinforcements from abroad, had been destroyed the course which events had taken in Spain had deprived him of the aid which would have been most immediate and effectual; he had no ally; he had no money; and, worse than all, the population shewed no disposition to make a

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voluntary effort in his favour. He remained shut up in his strong position at Santarem, apparently the unpopular as well as the unsuccessful candidate for the crown, and making no exertion even to communicate with and support the commanders who still maintained his cause in different provinces of the kingdom.

The government, on the other hand, resolved to pursue its military operations with vigour. It was not deemed prudent to attack Santarem itself, which could not be carried without heavy loss, while a check might have been productive of very mischievous consequences. The plan adopted seemed to be, to establish the queen's government as extensively as possible by crushing the smaller bodies of men who were still in arms for the cause of the pretender in other parts of the kingdom, till there should be no Miguelites but those who were around

himself. In pursuance of this plan, the duke of Terceira, joined the queen's army before Santarem in the beginning of January, in order that Saldanha might undertake other operations. The first attempt of the latter was against the portant town of Leyria, between Lisbon and Coimbra, which was occupied by a Miguelite garrison of 1,500 men. Marching from Santarem with between four and five thousand men, on the 12th of January, he reached Leyria on the 15th, approaching it with the great body of his army, from the side of Coimbra, while another division advanced more directly to occupy the attention of the garrison. The latter prepared at first to resist this division; but on learning that the main army had got between them and Coimbra, they lost courage, evacuated the town, and attempted to retreat. It was too late: Saldanha was upon them, and they were utterly routed. The victors disgraced themselves by wanton bloodshed; they gave no quarter: and their commander was under the neces sity of assigning this as the reason why, after such a route, there were so few few prisoners. Saldanha then marched towards Santarem from the north, and on the 25th of January made himself master of Torres Novas, where the same system of massacre was renewed. Saldanha was compelled to write in his dispatches, "It was very difficult to prevail on our soldiers to grant quarter, and consequently the number of killed was very considerable, and we have only seventy-eight prisoners." The killed were five times

more numerous.

The army of Saldanhano w

separated Miguel from the north, while the army of the duke of Terceira pressed upon him from Lisbon. No operation of any consequence, however, took place till the 18th of February, when the Miguelite army made an effort to relieve itself by attacking Saldanha in his position at Almoster. The royalist commander allowed them to execute their plan to such an extent, as brought them within the operation of the scheme which he had formed to defeat it. He permitted them to advance to a considerable distance from their own position, and to ap proach, and even form, till they had crossed a stream, which lay between the two armies, and a narrow bridge across which was now their only way of retreat. He then attacked them; broke across their lines with the bayonet, and compelled them to give way. They fled in confusion to the bridge which presented but an inefficient means of escape, and were slaughtered almost without resistance. The fact seems to be, that the queen's troops were following out their practice of giving no quarter, although Saldanha, while he described the carnage as something which he had never seen equal. led in all his campaigns, except in the "breach of St. Sebastian," ascribed it to a different, and a somewhat singular cause. "A kind of torpor," said he, "seized the rebels. They scarcely made any resistance, and yet could not determine on surrendering; and our soldiers, enraged at such pertinacity, made a dreadful slaugh ter." Notwithstanding this loss, however, the enemy repeated the attack on different parts of the line, but on all they were repulsed, and were compelled to continue

to confine themselves within their daily increasing. General Santa

works at Santarem.

Events equally favourable to the queen took place in the north, where considerable numbers of Miguelites were still in arms, though their main body had been called to the defence of the positions on the Tagus. A division of the garrison of Oporto marched from that city on the 25th of March, to clear the north of the Douro, destroying as they advanced, the works which the army of Miguel had erected during the siege of Oporto. On the 27th they entered Guimaraens, not only without opposition, but with welcomes and congratulations on the part of the inhabitants. Thence they marched, with equal good fortune to Braga, the enemy retreating without fighting into Tras os-montes, and towards the frontiers of Spain. In the course of a few days, the whole province of Minho had declared for the queen. To co-operate with these movements, and aid this spirit, the duke of Terceira had marched to the north with a division of the army. In the beginning of April, he entered Lamego, in Beira, which had followed the example of the towns in the neighbouring province. The Miguelites still remaining in this quarter had intended, when driven out of Minho, to defend themselves along the line of the Tamega; but this movement behind them from the south, while the army of Oporto was in front, obliged them to retreat, after they had attempted in vain to maintain a position at Amarante. The retreat became a dispersion. The militia laid down their arms, and returned to their homes; desertions from the regular troops were VOL. LXXVI.

Martha himself, who had been commander-in-chief of the Miguelite army, saw that the cause of his patron was hopeless, presented himself at the head-quarters of the duke of Terceira, and made his peace with the government.

The provinces north of the Douro being thus cleared of the enemy, the duke retraced his steps to expel the partizans of Miguel from the positions which they still held between the Douro and the Tagus, particularly Coimbra on the Mondego, and Figueiras at the mouth of that river. The reduction of the latter was intrusted to a naval expedition commanded by Admiral Napier. He appeared before it on the 8th of May. On learning his approach, the garrison had evacuated the town, and the inhabitants immediately hoisted the standard of the queen. On the same day, the duke of Terceira reached Coimbra, having encountered scarcely any opposition in his march from the Douro, except at Castro d' Ayre, where the enemy suffered a total defeat. Coim bra, itself, opened its gates; and thus the dying hopes of Don Miguel could linger only in the isolated position which he occupied, or the fortresses on the Spanish western frontiers which still remained in his hands.

But it was from this very quarter that his destruction was approaching. Miguel had been doing nothing for himself; he seemed incapable of doing anything for himself, and to have nobody about him who could do any thing for him. While he allowed himself, almost without an effort to be thus shut up be

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tween Santarem and the Spanish frontier, a Spanish army was crossing that frontier to render his situation utterly desperate. We have mentioned in our notice of Spanish affairs the agreement by which the two queens were to unite their exertions to get rid of their competitors, the treaty in which Britain and France had joined with them for the execu. tion of that object, and the march of the Spanish army under general Rodil to accomplish it. The appearance of that army in Portugal was even more fatal to Don Miguel than to Don Carlos, against whom it was more immediately directed. It was immediately followed by the defection of many of the places which still adhered to him, and among others of the important fortress of Almeida. The rapid march, too, of general Rodil, who found no army to oppose him, from Guarda, towards the Tagus, rendered military resistance no longer practicable. On the 18th of May, Don Miguel abandoned his lines at Santarem, retreating towards the Guadiana, in the direction of Evora. Count Saldanha and the duke of Terceira immediately crossed the Tagus to pursue him. They were at the head of 20,000 men, advancing in two columns, and in different directions. Whatever of an army still remained to him was now rapidly disbanding, for every glimmering of hope was gone, and the government was proffering an amnesty. On the 22nd of May, his general, Lemos, proposed to Saldanha and Terceira a suspension of arms for the purpose of negotiation; stating that, if that purpose was to be attained, it was necessary that the armies should not approach any

nearer to each other. Count Saldanha halted for a day, at which the government expressed some displeasure; the duke of Terceira pressed on. The go vernment refused to enter into negotiation, or to listen to any terms different from those which had been already tendered →→ namely, that don Miguel should leave Portugal within fifteen days, and engage never to return to any part of the Spanish provinces, or the Portuguese dominions, nor in any way concur in disturbing the tranquillity of these kingdoms; that he would be allowed to embark in a ship of war, belonging to any of the four allied powersthat he should receive a pension of sixty contos of Reis (15,0002.) and be permitted to dispose of his personal property, on restoring the jewels and other articles belonging to the crown and to private indi viduals. The troops still adhering to him were to lay down their arms, and return peaceably to their homes under the protection of the amnesty, and he was to issue orders to commanders of fortresses, or of troops, who still recognised his authority, immediately to submit, under the same protection, to the government of the queen. The convention, by which Miguel accepted these terms, was signed on the 26th of May. On the 30th, he quitted Evora for Sines, which had been appointed as the place of his embarkation. On the 2nd of June, he there went on board a British vessel of war, which carried him to Genoa; and there immediately appeared a declaration by him, dated Genoa, 20th of June, protesting that the capitulation, into which he had entered, was null and void as an act, which he had

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been compelled to sign, in order to prevent greater misfortunes, and spare the lives of his faithful subjects. My acquiescence," said he, in all the stipulations imposed upon me by the prepon derating forces confided to the generals of the two governments now existing in Madrid and Lisbon, in accord with two great powers, was a mere provisional action on my part, for the purpose of saving my subjects in Portugal from misfortunes, which the just resistance I might have made would not have spared them, having been surprised by an unexpected and unwarranted attack from a friendly and allied power."

The civil war being thus happily brought to an end, and the authority of the queen acknow. ledged all over the kingdom, Don Pedro issued a decree, convoking an extraordinary meeting of the Cortes, to assemble on the 15th of August. The peers, who had signed the representation to Don Miguel, which preceded his dethronement of his niece, were excluded from their seats in the upper Chamber. Without the intervention of the Cortes, however, the government had been adopting legislative measures of great moment. In March there appeared a decree, which declared the ports of Lisbon and Oporto free to the merchant vessels of every country not at war with Portugal; all kinds of merchandise and articles of commerce, wheresoever produced, or under whatsoever flag imported, were to be admitted into them for deposit, and were to be allowed to be freely-exported, subject only to the payment of a duty of one per cent, and of some necessary charges; and every law contrary to

this edict was, in consequence, to be revoked.

In April, another decree was promulgated, which fixed the duties on all foreign imports at fifteen per cent ad valorem ; a measure which deprived the British of the privileges which they had long enjoyed under the Methuen treaty, and the treaty of 1810, and reduced them to an equal footing with France. One decree abolished all the rights, privileges, authorities, and immunities of the Oporto Wine Company: another ordained "the total extinction of all convents, monasteries, colleges, and religious houses of monks of the regular orders," and incorporated their estates with the national domains. A not less striking instance of this wide, though well meant despotism was exhibited in the sudden change effected in the state of the currency. In the year 1798, the Portuguese government commenced the issue of paper notes of various amounts, from 1,200 reis to 20,000 reis each, payable one year after date with interest; and the cur rency of the country was established bylaw, half in these notes, and half in metallic coin. Within two or three years after they were first issued, the government ceased to exchange coin for their notes, or even to pay interest; and the consequence was, they fell to a discount, the rate of which fluctuated, being at one time upwards of thirty per cent, and at no period within the last twenty years lower than fifteen per cent. In July, 1834, the discount was twentysix per cent. Commercial accounts had been kept in this currency, and it had formed the basis for all transactions, unless excluded by special agreement. 12 F 2]

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